Magic

Hattie had her dance debut this weekend, dancing to the disco classic "Magic". (you know - "have to believe we are magic...") She has been taking ballet here in ABQ for about 2 months. When she started, the rest of the class had already ordered costumes for the recital, so we agreed that we would just be taking these last few classes of the year for fun and not be doing the recital. That was fine with us, and Hattie can be very shy and reluctant in front of people anyway.

Well, last week, one of the girls in her class dropped out and all of a sudden there was a hole in the dance formation and an extra costume available. They asked if Hattie would like to jump in and do it since she actually had learned the routine pretty well. I hesitated a bit, but David and I decided that Grace has gotten to do so much and Hattie so little so far that maybe it was Hattie's turn to do something big.

I don't think it's only a mother's love that says this kid is a gorgeous little creature. Seeing her in a pink sparkly dance outfit with the little ballet shoes that are on their second generation of dancers just makes me flutter. She can really get into things when she lets her guard down, so I thought maybe between the "princess" outfit and all the attention on her she might pull through and shine. But my heart sank when I saw the recital instructions saying that you had to drop the kids off 30 minutes prior to the recital and they would be backstage for the entire thing, no parents allowed. I knew this wouldn't go over well with Harriet, knowing that I've had to pretty much sit with her in her church class for all 2 hours up until just a few weeks ago. She's been pretty worried about me leaving her since we moved.

Friday night was the dress rehearsal at the Popejoy Theater at UNM. It's definitely a neat theater - the Wicked and Beauty and the Beast musicals are both going to be done there soon. I was totally amazed when Hattie let me drop her off with her teacher. She bravely went out on stage with her class and shyly threw out a few dance steps too. She even remained unflustered when a series of "wand stealing" went on when the girls picked up the wrong wands from the stage and proceeded to take them out of each other's hands. After the whole thing though, I think it overwhelmed her to the point of breakdown on Saturday.

(outside the theater right before dress rehearsal)

Saturday night, Hattie cautiously went backstage, rose in hand for her teacher. She seemed like she would be ok. Whew. I went around to the theater and found our seats with David and Grace. Not 10 minutes later, a voice over the loudspeaker asked if Hattie Chapman's mom could please come to the side curtain. She was in sobbing tears. She said she didn't want to dance. She was scared to go onstage. She didn't want to be backstage. She wanted to leave. Oh no. I didn't want some wicked stage mom to come out in me and make her do something she really didn't want to do. But, at the same time I wanted her to stretch herself a little and do what she had come to do (and seemed excited for in the beginning.) Ok, maybe a little selfishly, I wanted to see her dance onstage and have her daddy get to see her too since he wasn't allowed at the rehearsal.

Luckily, the studio staff were extremely understanding and kind and let me come and sit with her in the green room. I got her calmed down enough that she said she would go onstage if I would go with her. Again, they were very very nice and let me stand right at the curtain while she danced.

I was so proud of that little sweetie. She dried her tears, got very brave, and stepped out with her hands on her hips with her class. She didn't go for the gold medal performance, but she earnestly tried to keep up and got a few moves in.

In the end, I think Hattie's stage fright got her the best deal. She got to come back to the audience with me and watch all the rest of the performances while the other dancers had to stay in the stage basement. The whole recital was done to disco music and I have to say it was pretty darn cool to see classic ballet, tap, jazz, and hip hop, set to 70's disco tunes. She had the absolute best time watching all the numbers and jamming out with the music, and I think she might have been proud of herself that she had been part of it. I am so proud of my brave beautiful little Hattie.

(you earned those flowers sweetie pie)

(silly sisters after the recital)